Aijaz Zaka Syed
FEED a monster and there is every danger of you ending up as its fodder. What makes the killing of yet another Indian techie in the United States last week — the second such tragedy in February — even more tragic and ironic is the fact that Indian Americans have perhaps been the most passionate of Donald Trump’s supporters. The community played a significant role in his groundbreaking election.
As the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported ahead of US elections, both the Indian American diaspora and Hindutva groups in India strongly rooted for Trump. Groups like Hindu Republican Coalition and Indian Americans for Trump hitched their wagon to the billionaire businessman’s star early in the campaign. Shalabh Kumar, who founded Hindu Republican Coalition, has been one of Trump’s biggest donors and is eying the job of US envoy to India.
While Indian Americans have always supported the Democrats, in this election they broke away with that tradition to vote for Trump. Most Indian Americans saw in him a “strong leader” a la Narendra Modi and an ally against “Islamic terrorism” and Pakistan.
The Times noted with particular interest the elaborate “yagnas” performed by some Hindu groups in India seeking divine blessings for Trump’s success and also the striking similarities of style, rhetoric and approach between the US leader and Modi. Both Trump and his guru Steve Bannon apparently admire the “Indian Reagan”.
“It may be pure coincidence that some of Mr. Trump’s words channel the nationalistic and, some argue, anti-Muslim sentiments that Mr. Modi stoked as he rose to power. But it is certainly not coincidental that many of Mr. Trump’s biggest Hindu supporters are also some of Mr. Modi’s most ardent backers,” wrote Jeremy Peters in the Times.
Even when Trump unveiled his “Muslim ban”, many in Indian media continued to cheer for him. Some even suggested taking a leaf out of Trump’s book to build “strong borders” and throw out our own “illegals’ and ‘Bangladeshis”.
Given this mutual admiration between the Right in the US and India, it’s understandable if fellow Indians are bewildered by these rising attacks targeting desis. The Indian media noted with dismay that Trump has not condemned the attacks on Indians. (He has since condemned the Kansas killing in his state of the union address).
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Information Minister Venkaiah Naidu have urged the US leader to condemn the Kansas shooting in strongest terms saying it’s important for the “US government to restore the faith of ethnic minorities in the country.”
One couldn’t agree more with Singh, the BJP’s solitary voice of moderation. But, pray, why this selective outrage? Why did the home minister not proffer the same advice to his own boss when such killings happened less than 30 km from Delhi? We are yet to hear Modi or other ministers condemn the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq and many others like him. Instead of bringing killers to justice, Ministers like Mahesh Sharma visited Dadri to express solidarity with his killers and justifying it in the name of “Hindu sentiments”.
Indeed, the BJP staged a “mahapanchayat” in the village to demand a case against Akhlaq’s family for “cow killing!” By the way, Akhlaq’s family moved out of its ancestral village, not because it thought it did not belong there, as the shaken wife of slain Indian techie, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, in the US concluded, but because it couldn’t take all the threats and hate anymore.
There cannot be a greater tragedy for a society when some of its members conclude they did not belong there — especially for societies whose chief strength is their diversity. It takes a lifetime to make a home and ages to build a vibrant, civil society and a united nation. Hate and bigotry can destroy it all in no time. In the words of Edmund Burke, all it takes for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
We have seen this happen again and again in what Prof. Badri Raina calls “residual democracies”. Xenophobia is rising across Europe, the land of Magna Carta. Indeed, intolerance is on the march everywhere.
Europe, which with its open borders and celebration of democracy and human rights once inspired nations around the world, faces an uncertain future as it gets assailed by the same dark forces. Instead of looking to the future, in the 21st century, we are walking back in time. Rather than nip evil in the bud, we flirted with it, allowing it to mutate into a monster.
All those shocked and bewildered at Trump’s actions like the Muslim ban, mass deportations of immigrants, the wall with Mexico and the plan to multiply America’s nukes cannot complain now. The man is doing precisely what he promised. At least, he cannot be accused of being a typical politician. The liberals did not do enough to stop him.
The same is true of our own answer to Trump. Notwithstanding his eventful past and his worldview, many good, reasonable Indians, tired of the numerous scams and listlessness under the Congress, voted for him in the belief a ‘strong leader’ would provide leadership and carry everyone along.
To be fair to Modi, he has certainly given a more effective and responsive administration. Corruption in high places is down. But all that good work is undermined and undone by his deafening silence in the face of antics of his Parivar, many of them honorable members of his Cabinet and government.
When men in power and authority remain silent in the face of such actions, they send an unmistakable message of complicity. This is why even as Modi preaches “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas”, BJP leaders and ministers go about their business as usual, spreading sweetness and light. Look at the Ramjas College episode in Delhi and how a 20-year old student, daughter of a Kargil martyr, is facing abuse and threats — some of them from central ministers — for standing up for her beliefs.
Again, this is why there is a sudden, visible surge in attacks on immigrants in the US. Because men like the Navy veteran who killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla believe that they have the highest sanction for their despicable actions.
It’s therefore important for leaders to not only speak out against hate and intolerance in clear, unequivocal terms but to also show with their actions that they do not sanction or tolerate it. In the end, hate hurts us all whether we are white or black, Hindus or Muslims. For many of those lunatics in the US, all immigrants and brown-skinned people are ‘Muslims.’
India and America, the nations of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., should be leading the world with their celebration of diversity and tolerance, not by accepting hate and bigotry.
— Aijaz Zaka Syed is an award winning journalist. Email: Aijaz.syed@hotmail.com
